New Things!

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
- Isaiah 43:19

Happy New Year! Today is one of the days of the year that we’re actually primed to do one of the things God regularly asks of us - to expect newness. God is constantly at work, and that means that new goodness is always breaking into the world. One of the things we struggle to do is to realize it - to pay attention.

Twice in this one verse God emphasizes our responsibility to be on the look out for what he’s up to. He starts off with the command: “See!” and then follows up with the question, “Don’t you perceive it?” Apparently, it really matters to God that we’d be alert to what’s really going on. Sure, our world can look like a wilderness and a wasteland at times… but the streams are coming!

Instead of making New Year’s Resolutions, perhaps today would be a good day to look carefully at what God is up to and to consider how, in practical ways, you might join in where God is at work. Where is God giving birth to new things in your life?